Funchal and Madeira by bus: the GIRO card, fares and the lines worth knowing

For a week in Funchal there is one decision to make on day one: pay the driver each time, or spend 50 cents on a GIRO card and load it. Choose well and a fortnight of buses costs less than two days of taxis. Choose badly and you have bought a card you will use twice.

This guide covers what a ride actually costs, which ticket suits which kind of trip, who runs what since the network was reorganised, and the handful of lines a visitor uses over and over. Prices and timetables checked on 8 September 2026. Fares changed in March 2026 and the line numbers are changing now, so treat the operator pages linked at the end as the last word.

Since 1 July 2024 the island's buses have run as a single network called SIGA, and the old company names on your search results are mostly out of date. SAM says so on its own front page: from that date it stopped being a concessionaire. Its eastern routes, and those of the Caniço operator EACL, are now run by CAM, the Companhia de Autocarros da Madeira, whose name heads the timetable sheets. Horários do Funchal still runs the city. SIGA Rodoeste has the west.

In practice this matters less than it sounds. One card works on all of them, one fare table covers all of them, and the timetables live in one place. What it does change is the search you do at home: an article about "SAM bus 113" or a link to aerobus.pt is describing a network that no longer answers the phone. The current numbers are Horários do Funchal on 291 705 555, SIGA Rodoeste on 291 220 148 and CAM on 291 201 151.

Buy from the driver and a single is 2.05 euros inside one municipality, or 2.65 euros if the trip crosses into another. Children aged 6 to 12 pay 1.00 and 1.30. That is the simple option and for two or three rides in a week it is the right one.

The GIRO card is the cheaper option for everything else. The card is 50 cents, sold at counters and machines around the city, and it holds pre-bought trips: 1.45 euros each inside a municipality, 2.00 across the island, in sets of two or more. The saving is 60 cents a ride inside a municipality and 65 cents on a trip across the island, so either way the 50 cent card has paid for itself before you get off the first bus. It also buys you something the on-board ticket does not: a validated municipal trip covers unlimited changes for 45 minutes with the same operator, and an intermunicipal trip for 90 minutes with any of the three. If your day involves a change at the top of a hill, that is the difference between one fare and two.

For heavy days there are day tickets, loaded on the same card. Municipal first, intermunicipal second: one day 4.95 or 6.55 euros, two days 8.70 or 11.60, three days 12.50 or 16.70, five days 18.00 or 24.00, seven days 23.50 or 31.10. At 6.55 euros the intermunicipal day ticket breaks even against three cross-island rides paid to the driver, which is one bus out to Câmara de Lobos or Camacha and back with a detour.

The catch is the airport shuttle. Every one of those day tickets excludes it. Only the Bilhete Regional Turístico includes the Aerobus, and it costs 13.75 euros for 24 hours, 18.35 for 48, 23.00 for 72, 29.50 for 120 and 36.00 for 168. If your plan is airport shuttle in, buses all week, airport shuttle out, do the arithmetic both ways: two shuttle rides pre-loaded are 11.10 euros, so the 72-hour regional ticket only wins if you are also riding a lot in between.

Monthly passes are cheaper still and not available to you. They are for residents of the region and every one of them requires proof of an address in Madeira.

Counters in Funchal are at Rua Dom Carlos I 6, at the Edifício 2000 on Avenida Calouste Gulbenkian, at Anadia Shopping, at the Marina on the Avenida do Mar, on Rua do Esmeraldo and at Pinga. Several of them close at weekends, so a Saturday arrival is better served by a machine: there are machines at the Marina, at the cable car station, at the Loja do Cidadão on Avenida Arriaga, at the hospital, at Anadia Shopping, at Caniço Shopping and in the airport arrivals terminal. Top-ups go on at the same places.

Around Funchal, the useful ones are short. Lines 20 and 21 climb from the centre to Monte, for the church, the gardens and the toboggan run; line 21 goes by way of the Largo da Fonte and passes the Monte viewpoint, the church of Nossa Senhora do Monte and the Marmeleiros hospital on the way. Line 22 continues to Babosas. Line 31 serves the Botanical Garden and line 31A its cable car.

Going west along the hotel strip, line 2 is the one to learn. It runs from the Avenida do Mar past the Praça do Povo and Parque de Santa Catarina, then along the seafront road calling at the Pestana Casino Park, the Savoy, Reid's, the Cliff Bay, the Lido, Porto Bay, the Pestana Promenade, Baía Azul, Duas Torres and Fórum Madeira before ending at Ponta da Cruz. If your hotel is anywhere on the Estrada Monumental, that single line covers the walk you were going to make anyway. Line 43 links Praia Formosa and Casa Branca to the centre by the inland route through Santo António.

Beyond the city, the split follows the operators. West is Rodoeste: line 7 runs to Ribeira Brava, line 96 climbs to Estreito de Câmara de Lobos and on to Jardim da Serra and Corrida. East is CAM: line 110 runs to Boqueirão by way of Caniço, line 157 comes in from Reis Magos through Garajau, line 155 serves Ponta da Oliveira, and CAM's Funchal terminal is on Avenida Calouste Gulbenkian, still signed Terminal SAM on the bus stop and on the maps.

Whether any of this works for you depends on where you sleep. Buses are frequent along the Funchal seafront and thin in the villages, which is the argument against basing yourself outside the city without a car; the where to stay guide goes through it area by area, and getting around collects the rest of the transport picture. Walkers should read the trails section before planning a levada day around a return bus, and anyone arriving by sea will find the cruises page more useful than this one, since the pier is a few minutes from the Avenida do Mar stops. Coming from the airport is a separate problem with its own answer: see the airport transfer guide, the wind outlook if you are flying in on a rough day, and the airport disruption topic if that day goes wrong.

Every line on the island is being renumbered into three digits, and for now both numbers are in circulation. SIGA's own pages show them side by side under "Atual" and "Novo": 21 becomes 021, 2 becomes 002, 31 becomes 031, 31A becomes 131, 110 becomes 503, 157 becomes 556 and 113 becomes 702. A stop that shows a number you do not recognise is usually the line you wanted with a zero in front.

And SIGA's own timetable search does not work yet. The page says as much, in Portuguese, and offers Google Maps, Moovit and HERE WeGo instead. What does work is the per-line PDF: pick the municipality and the line on siga.madeira.gov.pt/horarios and download the sheet. Horários do Funchal runs its own finder for the city lines. Print or screenshot what you need, because Sunday and holiday timetables on the smaller lines are thin, and the last bus back from a village is often earlier than you would like.

How much is a bus ticket in Funchal? 2.05 euros from the driver inside one municipality and 2.65 euros if you cross into another. On a GIRO card, bought in advance, the same trips are 1.45 and 2.00 euros. The card costs 50 cents.

Is the GIRO card worth it for a short stay? The 60 cents you save on a municipal ride already covers the 50 cent card, so it pays for itself on the first ride, and a validated trip lets you change buses free for 45 minutes within a municipality or 90 minutes across the island. For a single journey, pay the driver.

Which bus goes to Monte? Lines 20 and 21 from the centre, with 21 running via the Largo da Fonte past the viewpoint and the church. Line 22 continues to Babosas, and lines 31 and 31A serve the Botanical Garden and its cable car.

Where do I find current timetables? Pick the line and download the sheet at siga.madeira.gov.pt/horarios, or use the city finder at horariosdofunchal.pt/index.php/viajar/horarios. The airport shuttle has its own page at siga.madeira.gov.pt/aerobus.

• SIGA, timetables by municipality and line, with current and new numbers: https://siga.madeira.gov.pt/horarios
• Horários do Funchal, city timetables: https://www.horariosdofunchal.pt/index.php/viajar/horarios
• GIRO fares, tickets and zones, under Portaria 128/2026: https://tiim.pt/index.php/tarifarios/bilhetes
• GIRO passes and their residency conditions: https://tiim.pt/index.php/tarifarios/passes
• SIGA points of sale and ticket machines: https://siga.madeira.gov.pt/pontosvenda
• SIGA, Aerobus page and timetable: https://siga.madeira.gov.pt/aerobus